JourneyOnline
The Other Side of You
By Salley Vickers
HarperCollins
RRP $32.95
A novel about psychotherapy featuring a story from the Gospel of Luke, a poem by T. S. Eliot and a painting by the Italian artist, Caravaggio, The Other Side of You is a feast of ideas and insights.
Vickers was trained as a psychoanalyst, of the Jungian kind, and writes about the healing power of memory, art and story.
Dr David McBride is the novel’s gracious narrator who carries the pain of his childhood into his work as a hospital psychiatrist with those threatening harm to themselves or others.
Elizabeth Cruikshank, a forlorn librarian, is one of his most challenging patients and David is able to elicit Elizabeth’s tale of love and remorse by risking discovery of his own.
Vickers’ fourth novel and her best so far, The Other Side of You is making a statement about the difference between a life propelled by buried wounds and one led by an admission of past pain.
It is also proclaiming the healing role of the artist, as Vickers weaves her narrative in and around Caravaggio’s painting, Supper at Emmaus”.
The Other Side of You has plenty of discussion-starters about pastoral care, the therapeutic relationship, and the role of memory in decision-making about vocation and love, and will be appreciated by clergy and layperson alike.
Mark Young is a reviewer for Journey
